The Senate is "institutionally incapable" of finding out what really happened during the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, says former Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Appearing on Fox News Channel's "Special Report," Napolitano said he watched Thursday's
confirmation hearings for Victoria Nuland, the former State Department spokeswoman who has been tapped by President Barack Obama as assistant secretary of State.
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"In my former forum, the questions would have been more pointed and she would have had to give precise, specific answers to the questions," Napolitano said.
Nuland's name surfaced after the Benghazi attacks because she was the go-between for the State Department in talks between the CIA and White House over talking points that would be used with the press. The final version of those talking points scrubbed any reference to terrorism.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have been trying to find out who changed the talking points used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday morning talk shows. In Wednesday's testimony, Nuland said she never communicated with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the talking points.
The Senate, which has the power to confirm Nuland's nomination isn't capable of finding the answers to Benghazi, Napolitano said, "in part because these (Senators) are not professional cross-examiners and in part because (Nuland) doesn't want to give truthful answers."
The only way the truth will ever come out, Napolitano said, would be from an independent prosecutor or the State Department of whoever assumes the presidency after Obama.
"This is deeply and profoundly frustrating," Napolitano said. "She obfuscated better than Susan Rice did."
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